


Supersonic

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 14:56:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7645627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which a teeny halfblood shows up, Will goes out in his pjs, and Apollo gets sentimental.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Supersonic

**Author's Note:**

> This is a slightly more up-to-date iteration of a dismissed story concept for the speed of light/speed of sound series.   
> It still uses Aisling, although no knowledge of those fics are necessary. Like I said, it's a post ToA1 take on the idea.  
> It'll probably have a sister story at some point, but no promises as to when yet. It took me this long just to do this one, right?  
> I hope you guys all enjoy the story!

Will woke up to the sound of crying. Not gonna lie, he thought at first it might’ve been his – Apollo. But as he sat up, rubbing his eyes, and came a little more into the land of the living, he realized that it sounded more like a little girl than a teenage boy. This was odd, as there were four people in the cabin and none were under the age of fourteen. He was about to brush it off as a sleepy delusion, but then he heard it:

“ _Is anybody out there?”_

Definitely a little girl’s voice, with the slightly broken, stuffy quality of someone who’s been crying for a while. It sounded oddly distant for how easily the sobs had awoken him. Will slipped out of bed, haphazardly shoved on a pair of shoes and a jacket, and headed out into the night. He couldn’t have told you where he was going, only that his stepsister was going to kill him for it if his boyfriend didn’t first.

And then he saw her.

Standing just inside the border of the camp was a tiny girl, maybe six, in a jacket that was clearly sized for a teenager. She faced out, looking down the hill with a look of horror on her face.

“Hello?” Will called. The girl jumped, turning to look at Will with wide eyes.

“Who are you?” she asked, her voice exactly the same as it had sounded in the cabin. “Wh- where am I? What is _that?”_

Will came up the hill to stand next to her. Once he saw the blood and teeth and claws, he didn’t really stop to process what they were attached to. He scooped up the girl and tore back down the hill.

He didn’t stop running until he found himself standing outside the Hades cabin – Nico’s cabin. The girl was crying again, sobbing into Will’s shoulder and her too-big coat.

Will kicked the door, his hands busy supporting the shaking girl. He couldn’t tell if she was shivering from cold or fear or both. It didn’t really matter.

Nico was at the door in an instant, with the slightly dazed look of someone who hasn’t yet slept at three in the morning. “Who died?”

That wasn’t something Nico would say lightly. Will wasn’t really sure how to reply, only knowing that all that blood – it must have come from somewhere.

But the girl… the girl picked her head off of Will’s shoulder and looked at Nico with red-rimmed eyes. “Topher.”

Without a word, Nico stepped out of the doorway, letting Will through into the cabin.

He set the girl down on one of the unoccupied beds. “Start from the beginning. What’s your name?”

\--

Nico knew children of the sun by now, and this girl was practically burning with it.

“My name is Aisling Day, and I’m almost eight years old, and Topher liv- lived next door to me and he said he saw bad things in our neighbourhood and that I should come with him to summer camp so I could be safe but it’s not summer and I thought he was joking but then there was this wolf thing and our whole street was broken and Topher said we should go so we left and we drove for days and days but the thing caught up with us and now Topher got eaten and I’m cold and I’m lost and – and – and –“ finally coming up for air, Aisling dissolved into renewed sobbing.

“Shh,” Will said, gently stroking her hair. “Shh, shh, shh. You’re safe. You’re safe.”

Nico was almost certain that Aisling’s ‘Topher’ was cabin 9’s Christopher Reading. Unfortunate, but not really the most important issue on the moment.

“My name is Will.” Aisling sniffled, but she wasn’t crying anymore. “You’re in a safe place for people like you. Like us.”

Nico sat down next to them, his hand on Will’s shoulder. “I’m Nico. Where’s your mom?”

Aisling shook her head. “I dunno.”

Over her head, Nico’s eyes met Will’s.

“Do you have any siblings?” Will asked.

“No.”

To Will, Nico mouthed, _YOU._

Will raised an eyebrow. _You think?_

Nico rolled his eyes. “Aisling?”

She peeked up over Will’s shoulder. “Yeah?”

“You know, there are people here that are – well, they’re your family,” Nico said, not entirely sure how to get where he was going without outright mentioning to Will that he was about 87% certain that the tiny girl’s mother was dead. “Do you want to meet them?”

Aisling nodded hesitantly.

“Right! Well, firstly, meet Will,” said Nico. “He’s your brother.”

“Nuh-uh,” Aisling replied. “No way no way.”

“Half brother,” Will corrected. “We _think._ Have you ever met your dad, princess?”

“No.”

Nico snorted before he could suppress it. “We’ve got him, too.”

Aisling gave him a funny look, but didn’t say anything to that. Will and Nico kept trying to keep her smiling and talking until she dozed off, just as the sun began to peek over the horizon.

“How did you find her?” asked Nico.

“I don’t know,” Will admitted. He brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes. “I woke up and she was crying outside.”

“ _Where_ outside?”

“She was – she was by the border,” Will said thoughtfully. “I don’t know how I heard her.”

“She’s your sister.” Nico shrugged. Then he paused, frowning. “Are you saying you went out in the snow in your pyjamas?”

“I – no,” Will said defensively. At Nico’s pointed look, he amended to, “Well, yes. But can you blame me?”

\--

At around ten – they’d skipped breakfast – there was a hesitant tap on the cabin door. It was Nico who answered it, since Will still had sixty pounds of sleeping eight-year-old draped across him. He found Apollo waiting out there, shifting his weight back and forth on his feet.

“Oh, good, you’re not – uh, that is, we weren’t sure where Will was and Kayla and Austin nominated me to check here,” he said.

“We were about to come looking for you, actually,” Nico replied. “We – Will – found something you ought to see.”

He turned and walked back into the depths of the cabin. When Apollo didn’t immediately follow, he turned back and called, “You’re not going to spontaneously combust, just come inside. In fact, if you don’t, you might freeze!”

Apollo shuffled inside after that. “What is it you wanted me to see?”

“Shh,” Will chided. “She’s sleeping.”

“Who’s–“ Apollo stopped abruptly when he saw the little girl in Will’s arms. “Aisling?”

She lifted her head from Will’s shoulder, looking a little groggy. “Who’s there?”

“You recognise her?” the boys said in unison.

“Of course I do,” said Apollo. “She’s my youngest living child. I was still actually keeping an eye on her before I – I wanted to make sure she’d live to get here.”

“ _She’s_ your youngest?” Nico asked before he could stop himself. “She’s _eight!”_

“I know I’ve got a bit of a reputation,” Apollo said, his eyes focused intently on his daughter. “But I do actually know how to use protection. Anyway, it’s been a little hectic lately. And then there was what happened to – that’s beside the point. Yes, UV’s my youngest.”

“UV?” Aisling repeated sleepily.

Apollo moved to sit down next to his children, but paused, glancing at Nico for approval. Nico nodded, gesturing to the bed behind him – his bed – to indicate that they were on a spare.

“Ultraviolet,” Apollo clarified, “is a light wavelength shorter than the visible spectrum. And you, my dear, are a daughter smaller than all of my other children.”

“A daughter?” Aisling giggled. “You’re old, but you’re not _that_ old.”

Nico snorted. “Trust me, he’s that old.”

“Excuse me, Aisling Brigid Day, I happen to be _thousands_ of years old,” Apollo said, trying and failing to sound intimidating and powerful. “I’m just… experiencing a few setbacks at the moment.”

Aisling’s eyes went wide. “You know my middle name! Are you magic?”

“Yes,” Apollo answered seriously.

“Okay,” said Aisling. Apparently that was enough to convince her.

“How did you get to camp?”

“Another camper,” Will summarised. Aisling was starting to nod off again. “He didn’t make it with her.”

“And she found you by…?”

“We were hoping you could answer that,” Nico said.

“I heard her crying this morning,” Will continued, “from inside the cabin.”

“She was at the camp border,” added Nico.

Apollo stroked Aisling’s hair. “That’s my girl. I haven’t had a kid capable of sonic manipulation like that in a while, but it happens from time to time. Well, actually, you’re all _capable_ of it. Most of you can only access it in distress though, and that’s just barely.”

“So it wasn’t a premonition or anything?” Will asked, looking slightly crestfallen. “We thought –“

“We thought that it might mean that they’re getting some of their lost abilities back,” Nico said bluntly. “But if it was _her_ , that means it’s a no.”

Apollo made an odd face at that, but didn’t say anything.

“M’sorry you’re disappointed,” Aisling mumbled, stirring.

“Shh, shh, shh,” Will said, trying to be soothing. He rubbed her back gently. “You’ve not done anything wrong. Nothing at all.”

“They were just hoping for a sign of something good,” Apollo said. “They don’t know, but that’s what you are.”

The boys looked up at him, surprised. It was like he didn’t see them, though. He just kept talking to Aisling.

“You got here, you’re safe,” said Apollo. “That’s more than many of my children can say. Especially – especially lately. More than I’d have liked haven’t made it here – and those that have haven’t all been making it back.”

Nico bit his lip. Cabin 7 _had_ lost its share of campers recently, and more to the point, it hadn’t gained the more after the wars ended.

They sat in silence for a moment.

Then Will shifted Aisling’s weight on his lap. “Hey, uh, Dad? Would you mind taking her to meet Austin and Kayla? I want to stay and talk to Nico for a sec.”

“Of course,” Apollo replied, nodding. “Aisling, do you mind if I carry you? Or would you rather walk?”

Aisling held her arms out for Apollo to pick her up, which he did before heading out of the cabin.

“So he seems to think she’s a thing,” Will said once he knew they were clear of the door.

“Or at least not not a thing,” agreed Nico. “If nothing else, she’s alone and she’s scared and she’s your sister and we should look after her anyway.”

“Right.”

“But also –“

“ – there’s hope.”

“There was always hope.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Sap.”

“You love me,” Will said, elbowing him.

“You know what?” Nico said, grinning. “I do.”

And with that, he jumped up and headed for the door, glancing back for just a moment to appreciate Will’s open-mouthed expression. With that stunned look preserved in his memory, he ran off to find out if there was any chance of still getting something to eat before arts and crafts.

 

**Author's Note:**

> For clarity, that's the first time Nico's even almost said "I love you."


End file.
